Wake honors Chicago Detective Joseph Airhart Jr.

Cop was shot in 2001 leading an FBI raid, and he died Tuesday of complications from that

November 10, 2008|By Steve Schmadeke, TRIBUNE REPORTER

Family, friends and fellow police officers poured into a funeral home in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood on Sunday to pay their respects to Joseph Airhart Jr., a Chicago police detective who died seven years after he was shot in the head while trying to arrest a robbery suspect.

At the wake, officers switched off their radios before entering Cage Memorial Chapel, 7651 S. Jeffery Blvd., where Airhart's body, dressed in a brown suit, was in an open casket piled with flowers. Airhart died Tuesday.

"He didn't deserve this," said a choked-up retired Chicago police investigator, Carlton McCarl Sr., 77, who worked with Airhart in the organized crime division. "I get emotional. ... He's better off where he is right now."

Airhart, a 19-year police veteran, was shot in his left temple in 2001 while leading a team of FBI agents into a South Loop apartment to arrest Daniel Salley.

Salley was sentenced in 2006 to life in prison plus 132 years in Airhart's shooting.

Airhart spent two months in a coma, and his health ebbed and flowed over the years, friends said Sunday. He died at age 53 in Advocate Trinity Hospital in Chicago.

The one constant was his parents, who still live in South Shore and were "by his side constantly, day in and day out" as the years passed, said Ronald Gamble, a retired Cook County sheriff's deputy who knew Airhart for 31 years.

"He was an all-around good guy," Gamble said. "[He did] the right things, as far as his parents, as far as his neighbors.

"And he was just a very good friend. He was there for everyone."

A friend of Airhart's daughter, who would not give her name, said Airhart had helped with advice and support when her father died about nine years ago.

On Sunday, mourners stood with bowed heads before Airhart's casket, which was flanked by two Chicago police honor guard officers. Among those who paid tribute was Supt. Jody Weis, a police spokeswoman said.

Flowers donated by the FBI, Chicago and state police, and his family filled the chapel, and as mourners left, they were handed a button with Airhart's photo, name and badge number (20931) under the words "In Loving Memory."

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Rockefeller Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave., on the University of Chicago campus. Visitation begins at 9 a.m.